


Series Notes for Lily Out of Water

by DragonsPhoenix



Series: Lily Out of Water [7]
Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jossverse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-08-17
Updated: 2008-08-17
Packaged: 2018-09-13 20:22:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 866
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9140809
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DragonsPhoenix/pseuds/DragonsPhoenix





	

After I'd named the stories, I started wondering what the titles mean:

  * The Bloom on the Rose: The idea of blooming maps to youth, innocence, trust, and naiveté and so to the idea that this is what Angelus is taking from Willow over the course of the story. However, this is also the start of the Willow and Spike romance. In my titles, flowers refer to union, coming together or falling apart, or to a group. So the bloom on the rose refers to the start of Willow and Spike’s relationship, love, romance. This story starts on the episode Innocence. The idea of innocence relating to bloom means the title is also a reference to that episode.

  * Where Candles Are Lit, Blossoms Fall:

  * Paper Roses: My mother had an album by Marie Osmond, who sings the song “Paper Roses”. Pertinent lyrics or, more likely, lyrics I actually remember: “I realize the way your eyes deceived me, with tender looks that I mistook for love. Take away the flowers that you gave me and send the ones that you remind me of. Paper Roses. Paper Roses. Oh how real those roses seemed to be but they're only imitation, like your imitation love for me.”

  * The Scattering of Cherry Blossoms: Refers to the dissolution of the group.

  * Falling Petals Carry Moonlight: Falling petals reiterates the idea that the group has fallen apart or is falling apart. The moon refers to the idea of transformation but specifically to fear of transformation.

  * Touching the Ashes of Fallen Flowers: Came from a haiku: Touching the ashes of my father.




  
 

**Thaumaturgy in my universe**

Vague and up-in-the-air ramblings:

**Qi**

There are different types of chi, two of which are important to my stories: one relates to magic and the other to prophecy. The channel for magic enters the human soul through that person's Holy Guardian Angel (HGA), because magic is related to the natural world and the HGA connects a human soul to the world. When a person is turned, their soul is replaced by a demon and their soul's connection to the world, the HGA, is either replaced by a demonic equivalent or is blocked. Basically this is why, once a human magic user is turned, the vampire only has the ability to sense magic in others and cannot access human magic. So, vampires are not linked to the natural order of things, world, and therefore cannot use magic but some can sense magic and/or retain prophetic abilities.

  
 

Qi must be related to human soul because Angel practices tai chi with Buffy. So, humans and demons can access chi in different but overlapping ways.

  
 

**Channels**

Witchcraft is the channeling of aetheric energy to achieve specific and immediate tangible effects on the physical plane. The human body has intangible channels that allow aetheric energy to pass through it. In the Middle Ages, this energy was thought to be of either divine, or more often demonic, origin. The theories promoted by Malinowski in the early 1900's, that aetheric energy is inherent in nature, has gained wide acceptance and led to the current academic discourses over the true source of aetheric energy in Watcher and affiliated circles.

  
 

The channels extend beyond the body to bring in external aetheric energy. This energy seems to go through some sort of a filter. During the Renaissance, an elaborate system mapping different channels to each of the four elements was devised; because it became very convoluted (like planet orbital descriptions), it is now an outdated system.

  
 

**Ability**

| 

**Element**  
  
---|---  
  
Perform Magic / Witchcraft

| 

Earth, Ru’akh  
  
Prophesy

| 

Fire  
  
Mesmerism

| 

Controlling the mind so air  
  
Sense Magic Potential / Power in Humans

| 

Either fire or air, I haven’t decided. I would put it as fire because they are natural channels related to chi but we are talking about how they were categorized in the Middle Ages.  
  
Detect Demon

| 

Air because ability to sense a demon seen as a gift from God  
  
  
 

Every Slayer has the detect demon ability. Angel has the power to sense magical potential in humans; this is why Angel is fascinated with human magic. This is why he has human victims perform rituals, as seen in Lily Out of Water 2, as well as why he wanted Willow’s power in the first place.

  
 

It is possible that the human ability to perform magic is transformed into the ability to sense magical potential during turning; vampires do not have the human ability to perform magic. If this is true, Angel was a potential mage before he was turned.

  
 

**Turning**

Much of this is from the seriously awesome webcomic [Pillars of Faith](http://pillarsoffaith.comicgenesis.com/).

  
 

The vampire is a Quipplothic shell and its power comes from the klippah principle in Tipheret also called hollowness or vacuum. The human soul (Ru’akh) is left behind when a human is turned and the energy generated when it leaves the body is used by the demon to take over and energize the body; the human spirit (Nefesh) is trapped in the body and this is how the vampire retains human memories. Ru’akh -> breath of God but I have also seen it described as an earth spirit.  
  
  


Human | Vampire  
---|---  
Body | Quipplothic shell  
Spirit (Nefesh) | Spirit (Nefesh)  
Soul (Ru'ach) | Demon


End file.
